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RUSSIA

Adventures Afloat: Russian River Voyages Between Moscow and St. Petersburg

Our adventure to Russia was not, originally, on our "bucket list," but we are very happy that we saw this amazing country. Catherine's Palace, Peterhof, Peter and Paul Fortress, the Hermitage and the Russian Museum are more than enough reason to visit the land of the tsars. Standing in Red Square, and touring inside the Kremlin, were experiences that, for an American, can only be described as awe-inspiring and maybe even surreal. Watching the ballet "Swan Lake" in Russia is an experience we will never forget. Visiting the World War II Memorial Museum, we grew to appreciate the Russian people for their heroism during the 900-day Siege. Our trip to Russia through Road Scholar, led by their extremely knowledgable guide, Violeta, helped us to understand this amazing country and to appreciate its history. It has made us want to continue learning about Russia in the years ahead. Through this trip we widened our understanding of a part of the world we never expected to visit. It was a truly wonderful experience. We would encourage anyone with a sense of adventure and an appreciation for history to see the city that Peter the Great had built out of the swamps, to explore the beautiful Golden Ring villages that line the rivers on the way to Moscow, and to wander through Moscow's Kremlin and its amazing collection of artifacts that belonged to the tsars, now housed in its Armoury. Overall, this trip has been the adventure of a lifetime for us. We enjoyed meeting all our co-adventurers as well. Thank you, Road Scholar, for making our trip so enjoyable. We will take another adventure with you soon.

This was our first Road Scholar Trip.(9/3/14) It was as expected. We were well prepared by Road Scholar.
Violetta is a Road Scholar treasure. She is a wealth of information, humor and a good mother hen; keeping all her charges in order and comfortable.
The boat and crew were excellent. Loved the cat.

The book "Russia by River" by Howard Shernoff which I found on Amazon was really fun to have on my recent trip and I recommend it to anyone that is going. It is slightly out of date, but the information on the sights we passed were still valid and made the trip more interesting to me. I also bought a map "River Cruise" in Uglich, the last port before Moscow. It would have been great to have it during the cruise. The website listed on the map is art@artbooks.ru which might have it available.
Good trip.

This was truly one of the most interesting and informative of the four Road Scholar trips we've taken. I recommend it without reservation. Believe what Road Scholar says in its materials about the activity level. This is not a program for anyone who has physical difficulties with walking. However, I'm almost 80, and my wife uses a cane, and we had no serious problems.

I was so impressed by Violeta's knowledge, care, compassion and wit. I do agree that Goritzy could be eliminated, and upon arrival in Moscow a more convenient hotel (and perhaps another day) would be improvements. The ship was immaculate and we were more than pampered. Thank you again Road Scholar; you have a devoted fan.

Just back from the July 2 trip and well-satisfied with it. Everyone talks about Violetta, and they should. She is more than outstanding. She is at least bi-lingual, an academic with a sense of humor and an obvious wish to send us home as well-armed in Russian history as possible. She’s also extremely helpful with the little things that are bound to come up. Her assistant on this trip, Marina (actually an employee of the ship company), is an excellent staff person with near-perfect English, a bright young university student. It’s hard to believe she’s only been studying English for about six years.
Food is important and it isn’t easy to come up with a menu acceptable to a couple of hundred people of varying cultures and tastes. The food on our ship was quite good. I could have done with fewer cream sauces, but there were always enough choices and more than enough food. We didn’t go hungry and we didn’t complain about what we were served. Plus there was frequent good ice cream.
Suggestions for improvement:
Many of us thought devoting a day to Goritzy was not time well-spent. We could have used more time in Moscow. If I correctly read future schedules for this trip, Goritzy has been dropped, but the trip has also been shortened by a day.
Additionally, most of my fellow travelers agreed that it would have been better had we left the ship on arrival in Moscow and stayed in a hotel. Time was wasted with the bus trips to and from the boat and the longer trip to the airport. It looks like that is also a change Road Scholar is making.
But nothing is perfect and overall, this trip was excellent.

This was our first RS venture and it lived up to expectations, largely because of Violetta's erudition, diligence, and patience. I very much wanted to see Russians and Russian life to understand their perspectives. In our histories, we read frequently of Russian aggression, so it was salutary to learn of invasions of Russia by Poles, Finns, Swedes, Mongols, and, of course in recent memory, the brutal war with Germany. The arts presentations were wonderful and the concerts and ballet were probably the best I've ever attended. What a privilege to have attended!

Superb program for understanding Russia and its rich history, culture, people, geography, due in part to an extraordinary leader (Violetta) who is the heart of the program. However, this is not a program for anyone who has difficulty walking long distances and up and down stairs, or standing for long periods in crowded sites.

Our leader, Violeta, was fantastic, made this trip highly worthwhile, and the small group was compatible, the trip educational in all respects, and our pre-conceived notions of Russia were changed for the better.

Wonderful trip, especially if you love lots of daylight hours as we experienced Russia's WHITE NIGHTS! Amazing trip with excellent food and tours and history. BUT be prepared to walk and walk and walk lots of stairs. Ship did not have an elevator but did have a sauna I wish I had known about before hand.

Russia became alive to me as we experienced many aspects of it. The people, places, art treasures, ballet, music, church domes, icons, all became what Russia offers in a rich tapestry to the traveler. Learning about the past as well as the present made the experience even better. Overall the trip was a memorable one.

This was my 4th Road Scholar experience, the second abroad. I learned a great deal and will cherish the memories. The RS participants are generally intelligent, fun-loving, and anxious to learn and the presenters are outstanding. I hope to do more with Road Scholar. A first class outfit!

My husband and I just returned from this program. We, too, were extremely pleased with this program. I also LOVED Violetta who could lecture on the complicated history of Russian rulers or any other topic without a single note and punctuate her information with pertinent quotes from primary sources. Not only were her teaching skills amazing; she was equally capable as a tour leader, always organized, warm, funny, and calm. We saw much more and learned much more than I even expected. Our two outside lecturers were also outstanding, candid and timely in their discussions on U.S-Russian relations.

I fulfilled a lifelong dream by going on this trip. I LOVED Violeta, our instructor, who was a wealth of knowledge about the history of the country. The excursions were really wonderful and well planned. Would highly recommend this trip.

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